Dame Vera Lynn backs calls to end 'utterly cruel' pigeon racing

CRAMMED into cages for days in appalling conditions before being forced to fly up to 900 miles, pigeons are being subjected to horrific abuse in the name of sport, an undercover report backed by Dame Vera Lynn has revealed.

Undercover video footage has exposed the mortality rate of pigeons released in cross-Channel races

Once they were the unsung heroes of two World Wars, but now an undercover investigation into the largest pigeon racing organisations in the UK has revealed massive losses and casualties of birds during races.

A secretly shot video, available to watch below, shockingly reveals widespread neglect and cruelty – even documenting one race in which more than 90 per cent of the birds did not return and are presumed to have died.

This included all of the Queen's birds which perished, the report said.

Many of the survivors who struggle against the odds to return to their lofts are still not deemed valuable enough for future races or breeding, and are often ruthlessly killed by being gassed with car exhaust, being drowned or having their necks broken, Animal welfare charity PETA has revealed.

In the most infamous race for British pigeons, the Barcelona International, the birds must fly anywhere from 650 to 900 miles back to their home lofts in the UK.

"They don't like it, it's alien to them," one racing expert can be heard saying in the footage, adding: "It's unnatural for any bird that flies over water where he can't see land in site, it frightens them."

John Tyerman, president of the British International Championship Club, said: "The Channel is a dreadful last hurdle for tired pigeons having to face 100 plus miles of open sea, when nearly home after 600 plus miles."

The casualty rate over the Channel is so high that many racers refer to it as the "graveyard," PETA state.